CORPORATE, HUMAN RESOURCES AND

STRATEGY SUPPORT REPORT

NSW PARLIAMENT ATTACHMENT 25TH July -5TH August, 2011.

1|P a g e
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Florence Naesol, Deputy Clerk and Lisi Chelsea Vave, Human Resources and
Strategy Support Manager

CONTENTS

Background ...................................................................................................................................... .3

Objectives of the secondment: ..................................................................................................... ..5

Acknowledgement .......................................................................................................................... ..7

Introduction ................................................................................................................................. …...8

Corporate Sevices/ Strategic Planning……………………………………………………………………….8

Procedure ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….9

OBSERVATIONS ……………………………………………………………………………………………..…....9

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT ……………………………………………………………………………………….……10

HUMAN RESOURCES POLICIES AND PROCEDURES……………………………………………………………... 18

PROCEDURES AND PREPARATIONS FOR SITTINGS ………………………………………………………….…..26

CONCLUSION …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…..…..28

RECOMMENDATIONS……………………………………………………………………………………………………… ...29
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Background
In early 2010 the National Parliament of Solomon Islands established its first Human Resources and Corporate Support
Unit. A Human Resources Manager was employed to assist the Deputy Clerk under specific terms of reference to achieve
nd
the Corporate Goals for the new Department and Parliament. A year on in the 2 quarter of 2011, , the National
Parliament of Solomon Islands completed and launched its first ever Strategic Plan 2012-2016 together with a detailed
Implementation Road Map. This new Strategy aims to achieve an “Autonomous” Parliament with full administrative
independence from the Executive by 2016. .

The newly established Human Resources & Corporate Support Unit (HR&CSU) is already doing a lot, however, there
remains more to achieve in terms of setting up proper systems and on internal policies to enhance some of its core
businesses like the HR policy development, Information data system and Recruitment of additional staff to strengthen the
Unit.

Parliament Autonomy remains a key agenda for the institution, in order to achieve autonomy SI Parliaments ability to
prove itself as a self sustainable organisation that is supported by a highly professional corporate culture must be apparent
on both the local and International level. Corporate Challenges management will have to conquer in the long run would
entail an efficient and effective administration of Parliamentary services, very much dependant on the Executive
management’s ability in convincing the Ministry of Public Service and Ministry of Finance through effective major
submissions for new positions and securing of budgetary matters.

The HR&CSU too is shouldered with the primary responsibility of overseeing this unprecedented Strategy and also to
ensure the 29 activity areas outlined under the 4 Strategic Objectives are systematically and effectively implemented
under the strategic framework. The Strategic Objectives for the period 2012-2016 are:

1. To develop the general capacity of the Parliament and to enhance the institutional capacity of the National
Parliament staff to serve Parliament
2. To improve the legislative process in Parliament to ensure enhanced scrutiny and quality of legislation
3. To improve the capacity of Parliament to provide effective oversight and
4. To develop the education and outreach work of Parliament and the representative role of MPs.

The HR&CSU falls under Objective1 and out of the 29 activity areas, 12 is under the direct implementation of this Unit. The
work load is therefore enormous and challenging and this is where the timeliness of the Attachment under the Twinning
was sought to assist develop the capacity of the HR&CSU officers especially in the area of managing and coordinating the
strategy as well as other Corporate business matters.
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The 2010 twinning attachment which Mr. David Kusilifu was seconded for a month had its focus on Parliamentary
Procedures. His secondment was successfully executed and essential knowledge and professional skills required were
transferred. Some substantial recommendations were made in his report for consideration by NPO & NSW Parliaments on
a core parliamentary function that was literally without an office space and staff in the National Parliament Office of
Solomon Islands.

This year 2011, one of the NPO’s emerging priorities was on the initiative for a 5 Year Strategy and its implementation
from 2012-2016. A Strategy Support Group was consequently created consisting of the Deputy Clerk, the Director of
committees and the Human Resources and Strategy Support Manager. There was requirement for all Heads of
Departments to perform consistently against their annual work plan and that the annual work plans are in line with the
Strategy Implementation Roadmap. Ms Lisi Chelsea Vave, the Human Resource Manager and Ms Florence Naesol, the
Deputy Clerk are key players in the overall management and coordination of this Strategy and its implementation
however, both lack any background knowledge or experience of managing a strategy such as this one, so the very reasons
for their selection for attachment.

The Secondment lasted from 24 July – 5 August, 2011, and our work stations were initially located in the Table Office of
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the Legislative Assembly and in the 2 week, in the Legislative Council’s Committee Office, for which we are very grateful.
As alluded to earlier, the focus of this Secondment was more on the HR & Corporate Support than the Procedures because
of the development of the HR&CSU and the implementation of the 5 Year Strategic Plan 2012-2016.
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Objectives of the Attachment

The rationale supporting the twinning attachment with NSW Parliament entailed providing the two officers with a brief
insight on various management systems currently used within NSW Parliament, with a core focus on how these systems
may be integrated into existing methods for SI Parliament to achieve the objectives stated in the five years strategy
implementation roadmap.

The two weeks training provided was to focus on the indicated areas of interest previously submitted by the Deputy Clerk
and the Human Resources and Strategy Support Manager.

It was indicated earlier on that the core areas of interest for both officers are as follows:

• Usage of the Office of the Deputy Clerk on linking the new procedures Office with the Offices of the Speaker and
the Clerk.
• Drafting and negotiation submissions on staffing and budgetary matters.
• The first draft of the Human Resources policies and procedures, handling specific Human Resources issues such
as equal employment opportunity matters, Operational Health and Safety issues, flexible working arrangements
and overtime, cyberspace security and internet computer use.
• Human Resources training for all staff members
• Discipline in terms of management response to sensitive cases and counseling for individual staff members.
• In-house reporting in terms of effective and efficient methods ( best practices)
• Methods of implementing a long term Parliamentary strategy.

The Deputy Clerk was to receive further training on the following areas,

• Core function of the deputy Clerk during sittings,

• Effective oversight of the vetting of proposed items of business
• Dealing with the formulation of the government business,
• Improvement to the Speakers program,
• Responding to and advising Speaker during heated debates,
• Assisting and acting as Clerk in Management of corporate services
• Handling trade disputes and staff grievances, institutional responses,
• Managing and monitoring office ( public ) expenditure,
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• Approach to designing and managing major and sensitive committee enquiries,

• Dealing with the media on sensitive issues , public relations,
• Handling MP’s entitlements and queries
• Personal, daily work ethics and principals as Deputy Clerk.

The Human Resources and Strategy Support Manager was to receive further training on

• Recruitments, consisting of the development of Terms of References and Job descriptions

o A.1. Developing interview questions and exercises
o A2. Development of an induction package and different induction methods
• Staff professional development plan which focused on
o B1. Individual training needs assessment
o B2. Process criteria and suggestions on short term trainings,
o B3. Leave and time management,
• Comparism of Information database management systems for
o C1. Improvements for NPO’s proposed card based systems,
o C2. Alternative off the shelf database software and its use and an interim measure for improving the
Microsoft based system that is currently used by the National Parliament Office.

The two officers were to be rotationally stationed in the Offices in the Legislative Assembly and the legislative Council for
th th
the period of two weeks starting on the 24 of July till the 5 of August.
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Acknowledgement

The following people are thanked for their assistance and support during the attachment:

Hon Don Harwin MLC, President

Hon Shelley Hancock, Speaker, MP.

Mark Swinson (LA) Deputy Clerk and David Blunt (LC) Deputy Clerk.

Robert Stefanic Executive Manager Department of Parliamentary Services

Julie Langsworth (Clerks Assistant Procedures Office) (LC)

Craig Wheeler (Human Services Manager)

Anthony Kiejda (Industrial Relations Manager)

Kim Smith (Director of Finance and members Services)

Simon Chalmers (ITS Business Systems Manager)

Susan Want, Director of Table Office

Janelle Moore, Procedures Office.

Elaine Schoefield, Director-Table and Chamber Services (LA)

Simon Johnston: Twinning project Coordinator

John Taupongi: Research officer (Twinning Coordinators office)

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Introduction

The flight from Solomon Island

to Australia, Sydney took place
th
on the 24 of July, where the
two officers were greeted at the
Airport by the Twinning
Coordinator Simon Johnston
and the Research Officer John
Taupongi at the Macleay
Apartments. . The following
meetings took place within the
two weeks of the attachment.

Corporate Services/ Strategy Planning

In the first week the key focus of the attachment centered on Corporate Services and Strategy planning, entailing
discussion sessions with the Deputy Clerk, of the Legislative Council, David Blunt and the Deputy Clerk of the
Legislative Assembly Mark Swinson. A core focus of the discussion centered on the Deputy Clerk’s role in
Strategic Management within the LA and the LC and additionally, NSW Parliaments strategic planning processes.
Further discussions
cussions on Corporate strategy and the Human Resources policy was held with the Clerks Assistant for
Procedures Office (LC) Julie Langsworth. Followed by additional discussions on the restructuring processes and
policies recently introduced into the legislative
lative Assembly’s Committee Office, with presiding officers Les Gonye ,
Clerks Assistant-Procedures
Procedures ( LA) and Ronda Miller, Clerks Assistant ( LA)

Further throughout the first week, discussions were also held with the Human Services Manager Craig Wheeler
and Anthony Kiejda (Industrial Relations Manager) on the new Human Resources Policy for Solomon Islands
National Parliament Office and Industrial Relations related issues.

Discussions on the Financial management system ,policies and financial management of Members services was
also held with the Director of Finance Kim Smith , followed up with a meeting with Robert Stefanic, Executive
Manager, Department of Parliamentary Services from the Executive Managers Office.
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The two officers were also presented with

ith a brief opportunity to observe a business planning session with the LA
table Office team and a mock Committee hearing

Procedure
In the second week of the attachment the two officers were stationed at the Office of the Legislative Council,
where discussions were held with the Director of the Table Office Susan Want and Jenelle Moore for Procedure Q
& A sessions and preparations forr sitting week. The Officers were given an opportunity to observe sittings in the
Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Councils Chamber. The Deputy Clerk then met with Elaine Schofield ,
Director of the Table and Chamber Services ( LA) to discuss sit
sittings
tings and relevant papers, then resumed to the
Chamber with the Human Resources Manager to observe the morning sitting in the LA Chamber and LA
Procedure Office. Further meetings were held between the Deputy Clerk and the LC Procedures Office followed
by a debriefing and exit interviews with the Twinning Project Coordinator.

OBSERVATIONS
The following observations were made during the two weeks attachment with NSW Parliament from
th th
Monday 25 of July to Thursday 4 of August
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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

A core duty of the Deputy Clerk with the support of the Human Resources and Strategy support Manager is
to ensure that from 2012-2016 the recently developed Strategy Implementation Roadmap is executed
accordingly. The two officers are to ensure that each Departments Job performance output progresses in line
with its annual work plan for the concerned Department and that a Corporate Plan for the organization is
produced by the Human Resources and Strategy Support Manager annually. In order to carry out such a large
task the officers must be well equipped with relevant knowledge and skills on the most appropriate systems
that should be in place to ensure that the required performance progress is evident and transparent.

The attachment with New South Wales Parliament provided an opportunity for the two Officers to observe
NSW Parliaments Strategy and Business Plans (2009-2011) for both Departments of the Legislative Council
and the Department of the legislative assembly.

The First noted apparent difference in the two Parliaments was that the departments within NSW Parliament
were independent from the New South Wales public service and were accountable to its President ( LC
(upper House) and its Speaker (LA, Lower House), unlike Solomon Islands Parliament which remains to be
part of the Ministry of Public service, accountable to the Public Service Commission. A further difference
included the Organizational structure of the two Parliaments where the NSW Parliament consists of three
main Departments, namely, the department of the Legislative Assembly, Department of the Legislative
Council and the Department of Parliamentary Services. The so called Departments within NPSI are likened to
Units within each Departments of NSW Parliament. The Solomon Islands Parliament does not have the
same type of organizational structure and provides support to only one house for all its Parliamentary
proceedings. In Comparison of the two Parliaments, the differences in staff numbers were obvious and it was
apparent that Solomon Islands Parliament lacked the job skills specialization that NSW Parliament had.
Instead, Solomon Islands Parliament operates a staff multitask corporate, legal and administrative matters
on a daily basis regardless of the fact that it is not part of their terms of reference. Its size, the volume of
businesses put to the House and the absence of a Parliamentary Calendar are obvious reasons for the
differences. An assurance for SI Parliament however lies in the fact that NSW Parliament is a relatively old
Parliament that has evolved since 1823 where Solomon Islands Parliament is likened to a baby and still has a
lot to learn and adopt from older regional Parliaments. Additionally, the two houses of the Legislative
Council and the Legislative Assembly have been observed to have more Parliamentary sittings and
Committee inquiries than the Solomon Islands Parliament, which means that there is a heavy focus on its
Procedures Offices. Solomon Islands Parliament on the other hand has only had one Parliament sitting in
2011 with plans for another later within the year and three in 2010, a proven less active Parliament due to
Political interest taking priority over that of the Nations.
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During the various meetings with the Deputy Clerks and Clerks Assistants for both houses it was brought to
light that a priority area that must be perfected in order to push forward the Implementation roadmap should
entail ownership and Change Management as part of the Strategy Support Groups work plan.

A) Handling Organizational Change.

The introduction of the strategy and the Human Resources Policy means that Solomon Islands Parliamentary
staff will be challenged with many changes from late 2011 to early to 2012 onwards. Therefore it is important
that a proper plan to address these changes is drafted. The plan should include an up to date Organizational
structure for 2011 onwards. This will illustrate the direction the Organization would like to take in regards to it
expanding. The current NPSI organization chart is not up to date and there is no five years structure approved
by the Executive group as of yet.

B) Corporate and Business Plans for each Strategic Priority.

It was noted that the Legislative Council did not have a Corporate Plan, however had a three years Business Plan
instead for each of its strategic priority. The business plan contained background information and objectives that
were to be achieved within the three years; it made mention of the main stakeholders, the LC’s previous progress
within this area and the new areas of engagement containing aims with delivery dates against each aim.

C) Reporting Systems
The reporting structure for NPSI comprises of the three groups, This is the Executive group, the Management
group which reports every fortnight, with the first fortnight to the Clerk and the Second to the Speaker. The
informal in-house committee’s chairs are also part of the management group. The only concern for the
formation and reporting systems currently in place is that there is no formal recognition of their authority from
the Public service. The current General Orders do not make any reference to formation of such groups for
purposes of overall management. The Clerk to National Parliament remains the formally recognized decision
maker and accountable officer for all administrative decisions.

a. Executive Group :
The Executive group for NPSI meets once a week to discuss the weeks progress, this group requires a
proper guideline and responsibility’s document.

b. Management Group :
The group comprises of most of the Senior staff leading the departments within NPSI. Staffing
numbers at NPSI is small therefore leading to a certain number of key staff multitasking to keep
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Parliament functioning on a daily basis, this creates additional stress for individual staff members. The
increasing number of meetings and presentations have been a distraction from enabling key staff
from being able to have alone time at their desk to put documents together to plan activities in line
with their terms of reference due to increased multitasking Therefore, additional activities in line with
their TOR are mostly left to be worked on after hours. It is a concern that the increase number of
meetings within the management group will burn out key staff if it continues.
The Group has a standard template used to create recommendations for the Executive Groups
approval; however, currently there is no standard reporting and presentation template for this group.

c. Informal In-house committees/Senior Management Teams

NPSI currently have a number of informal in-house committees that assist the Clerk of Parliament and
other decision makers with the management of its administration such as development projects, it
was noted that the Department of the Legislative Council had a similar group in place called Senior
Management Teams, which carried out duties in line with strict guidelines and responsibilities.
Meetings were kept to a limited time of only half an hour to an hour, with a brief verbal report from
the Chair. Meetings for these management teams took place on a monthly basis (unless there was an
urgent need to call more frequent meetings) unlike that of NPSI informal in-house committees which
takes place once a fortnight. It was also noted that although each informal in-house committee for
NPSI has its own terms of reference there is no guideline and responsibilities document which covers
the conduct of business, responsibilities of the chair and conduct of meetings across the board.
Further to this, there is a need for a standard template for the recording of minutes for each meeting.
The standard template should consist of the following subheadings: Agenda, Item, Action, Action
Officer and Progress. As all standard templates it must also have records of the meeting date, start
time, end time, place and names of members present.

d. Frequency of Reports
It was noted that the legislative council has Biannual reports categorized as operational imperatives
submitted twice a year to show the progress of the Department against its Business plan objectives
and due dates. NPSI has reports biannually however only for its Parliamentary Strengthening Project,
NPSI has not created such report for its own reporting purposes except for the 2010 Annual Report
due to be released in the coming months.
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e. Change Management Timelines

A proper change management timelines is needed for the Strategy support group to ensure that
change management is carried out accordingly. This should be similar to the annual work plan
however more detailed
ed with a list of activities that the Strategy Support Group intends to carry out.

f. Templates
It is important that all relevant templates/forms for reporting purposes are created as soon as possible
to be ensure a proper up to date following up each Departments Annual Work plan for NPSI.

Managing Parliamentary Services

The Management of Parliamentary services is a Department on its own in NSW Parliament.

The following observations were made in the brief meeting over lunch with Robert Stefanic,
the Executive Manager responsible for the overall department :

The different types

es of Parliamentary services that is managed under this department is as
follows

1. Education and Community Engagement

2. Human Services
3. Information services
4. Library services
5. Office of the Financial Controller
6. Operational Health and safety Management
7. Parliamentary Catering
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8. Parliamentary Facilities.

This report will only mention of specific services in which meetings were conducted to discuss
its management practices.

Office of the Financial Controller

The two officers were provided with an opportunity to discuss with the Director for Finance,
Kim Smith on Financial Management issues and management of members services.

The discussion was focused on Members entitlement Management; the process of managing
member’s entitlements included the production of a yearly financial statement. Members are
provided with a Handbook on how to manage their entitlements and are required to sign a
declaration for purposes of certifying that the goods purchased with the entitlement money
are strictly for Parliamentary Businesses. A member is held personally responsible to comply,
as stated in the legislation granting entitlements for Members of Parliaments. All disclosures
on mishandling of the entitlements are made to the Independent Corruption Commission.

The finance Unit takes the following initiatives to ensure that mishandling is avoided. The
Director of Finance acts as the Audit Executive, providing for risk management. Private
Internal auditors are contracted to work with the Financial controller on the risk involved in
managing member’s entitlements for NSW Parliament and also to provide a review on the
entitlement with advice. Additionally, it is a practice for the audit Office and the Risk
Committee to cross check Parliament on the audit results. The auditors include internal and
external employees. Once the audit report is completed it is submitted to Parliament for
Management to review its recommendations.

The audit risk committee provides the advice for all managers, which includes the Speaker,
Clerk and so forth. The Committee consists of a list of pre-approved people who are properly
qualified to be part of the committee. There is a 12 months reporting cycle for the
committee.

The subject of “Members entitlements” remains an issue at NPSI, where there is no strong
public accountability systems put in place to monitor constitutional money and how it is
spent.

Budget

Four years projections are usually created to determine the budgetary needs for
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Parliamentary Services; budget is usually prepared before hand and then negotiated with the
treasury.

A challenge for NPSI in terms of budgetary matters for 2011 was that the budget submissions
were always created by the Chief Accountant, the Clerk and the Deputy Clerk did not play
much of an active role in the creation of budget submissions to Public Service for the
following years, as was the practice for many years now. The latest cutoff date for budget
submissions for 2012 is August 22 in which Management intends to take a more active role in
the submissions this year.

The fact that most positions and departments created under the Parliamentary
Strengthening Project are non-existent according to the SIG establishment. Take for instance
the non existence of the legal department, due to the fact that all Lawyers employed at
Parliament who together make up the legal team are officially employed at Committee
Secretaries. According to the SIG establishment for Parliament, there are no Civic Education
and Community Engagement officers employed at National Parliament as these Officers at
NPSI are currently being paid for by the Parliamentary Strengthening Project, UNDP. This
means that no such budgetary considerations are given at all for the purposes of community
outreach functions for NSPSI.

“Functions Rooms “

A form of revenue stream for NSW Parliament are its functions rooms, these are rooms that
can be hired out to the public. Other Operations providing revenue streams for the
Parliament includes the bar, Strangers Restaurant and the staff cafe. Although, the monetary
gains from the bars, restaurant and function rooms prove beneficial to the Institution, it is
advised that there is a need for proper management and closer attention to be brought to
bookings intervals for the function rooms to avoid disgruntled customers.

NPSI has a small informal canteen in its Kitchen which is managed by the Parliamentary
Housekeepers supervisor; all profits from this canteen are submitted as contributions for the
end of the year staff Christmas party. However, there is no proper catering services provided
for Parliament Members and Local staff, on rare occasions during sitting days the catering
service is outsourced to a local supplier only for the period of the sitting days. The first and
foremost reason why catering services at NPSI have been unsuccessful is the culture of
purchasing goods on a credit basis. This has lead to the lack of enthusiasm to allow a caterer
to carry out a full blown catering contract with NPSI. It is noted that NSW Parliament has
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House Accounts, where the staff is allowed to sign an agreement to hold an account in which
if there is a failure in keeping up with outstanding credit the outstanding will be deducted
from the employee’s final salary. The legalities of being able to adopt such a practice must be
first looked into as it may not be able to be adopted at the NPSI.

Payroll

The management of the payroll system is integrated in the SAP system used by both Human
Services and the Finance unit.

Management of Parliamentary Facilities

A) All Security Guards at NSW Parliament are special Constable police officers, this has
diminished the need for management and training for permanent security staff employed by
the Parliament, it was observed that during the employment of Parliament employed
security guards; the guards grew comfortable with their work station and became careless
with their daily duties. However now with the special constables from the Police Force, the
security standards have improved drastically. An Electoral Office Alarming monitoring
system is also put in place.
In regards to NPSI outsourcing to the police, caution should be taken due to the Solomon
Islands political instability and the probabilities of Police being involved in over throwing the
Government of the day. Another option that should be considered in outsourcing to private
professional security guard companies such as the Fiji Security Services.

Operations Management

B) Parliamentary Cleaners :
Are permanent staff due to the requirement of their job to clean within the members
Offices, there is a need to have a closer monitoring of the cleaners and to establish a
stronger trust between members, Management and the Cleaners. Other area’s managed
under operations include the maintenance of services of the building and engineering and
switchboard management. NPSI Parliamentary housekeepers are currently non-established
staff, their daily duties do not require for the cleaners to have access to member’s offices.
However in 2012, upon the completion of the new members Constitutional Offices NPSI
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Parliamentary housekeepers will need to be strictly monitored and trained.

Management of Assets
Includes the management of printing services, procurement and protection of Art work and
antiques owned by NSW Parliament. There is currently no recording system and policy in
place for NPSI for its antiques and gifts. Therefore it is best that one is created as soon as
possible.

C) Archives :
The archives is where all the house records are being stored, unlike NPSI, where all records
are transferred to the National Archives Office, NSW Parliament manages and is solely
responsible has its own archives office.

Intranet System for NPSI

A brief meeting was held with Simon Chalmers to discuss the creation of an intranet system for NPSI,
The following advice was given by the Director for Information Technology:

1) That upon the installation of an intranet system it is not recommended that the Information
Technology Officers be responsible for the content upload onto the Intranet. Content upload
training may have to be carried out for each NPSI departmental officer responsible for creation of
update for the concerned department. There must be a policy on content management for NPSI,

A teleconference was then scheduled between the two IT Officers in Solomon Islands, the
Director for NSW Parliament ICT, the Twinning Program Officer, the Deputy Clerk and the
Human Resources Manager to further discuss the creation of an Intranet system for NPSI. From
the teleconference it was established that the maintenance of the current NPSI website and
platform used the program Droopall, the two IT Officers are to research if there is a system which
supports the program and can be used to support the intranet for NPSI:

Steps towards creating an Intranet system for NPSI

A) Step 1
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Information Technology Officers are to organize a workshop to determine the desired

structure for the intranet, determine the documents the organization would like to make
available in the intranet and which documents will be available in the internet. Establish a
system where the information will be maintained, which includes updating and review of
policies, forms and content management.

B) Step 2
Explore different web products that can be used for Intranet, find out how to configure and
set up on the NPSI server. In addition, find out from the service provider how much
information can be loaded onto the Intranet system. The service provider must also be able
to provide a backup for the information that is published on NPSI website, if the server is to
blow up unexpectedly or the disk that is being used unexpectedly goes dead, it is important
to get an estimate from the service provider the length of time needed to redo the whole
site.

D) Human Resources and Industrial Relations

Human Resources Policies and Procedures:

A) Briefing on policies and procedures based on first draft

A major focus of the attachment was to finalize the Human Resources Policy which is currently
drafted by the NSW Parliament Twinning Program’s Research officer John Taupongi, the task was
taken on as an outstanding undertaking from the previous year in which the Officer was employed at
NPSI as a private Legal Consultant to the Clerk. Various meetings were held between the Twinning
Program’s Research Officer, the Deputy Clerk (NPSI) and the Human Resources Manager (NPSI) to
clarify questions on the usual Public Service practices from the SI General Orders, which has proven to
be an impediment to the completion of the policy. By the end of the two weeks the two presiding
officers were fully briefed on the HR Policy draft and its contents.

The following areas of concern were discussed during the various refresher meetings :

A) Transfer of Parliament Staff submissions

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It was to be noted that caution should be taken on the transfer of the post for the Parliamentary
Constitutional Legal Specialist in order to maintain impartiality in advise to the Clerk from Public
Service system.

Procedures Office
The importance of quickly establishing the procedures Office was brought to light, there has
been various attachments between NSW Parliament and NPSI towards the establishment of this
office, however with the current freeze in the Public service positions the office was not able to
be created as planned. It is suggested that an informal office, similar to that of the Legal
Department is created as soon as possible as already recommended in David Kusilifu’s report to
prepare for the next Parliament sittings in November.

Occupational health and safety policies

The two Officers were given an opportunity to meet with the NSW Parliaments Human Services
Manager and Industrial Relations Manager to scope practices that are deemed suitable to be
included in the Human Resources Policy. The following have come to the attention of the two
Officers,

Employee health and safety should hold high priority in any organization, Job specialization
focusing in this area in NPSI is imaginary at this stage, therefore the responsibility to ensure
occupations health and safety for employees falls on the shoulders of both officers, safety
practices that must be taken into consideration when drafting the policy should include
workplace environment, work overload, working hours , air-conditioning, safety clothing etc and
the availability of a counseling centre for staff

There is a need for a workplace assessment to ensure that staff well being within the workplace is
maintained. Compensation issues should be a focus, facilities and building management must
always be in line the most current occupational health and safety legislations.

Current Occupations Health and safety issues that will be a priority at NPSI includes trainings and
emergency exit plans on Natural Disasters such as Tsunami warnings, riots and safety
inspections for the Parliament Buildings.

Handling Grievance settlements :

It was suggested by the HR Policy drafter that there may be a requirement for NPSI to create two
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additional bodies for

1) Handling staff grievances

2) Handling Disciplinary cases

Leave and Time Management and Flexible Working Arrangements:

1) Types of Leave systems that were discussed with the Human Resources Policy drafter included
The current types of leave available as stated by the General Orders:
A) Accumulated Leave:
Used for Provincial Public servants and people who live overseas, especially due to the long
amount of time needed to travel in order to get to the holiday destination.

B) Leave and Cash conversions: The General Orders only allow accumulated leave to be
converted into cash when the officer is being recalled early to duties while still on holiday.
This means that cash conversions are only allowed if an Officer has started an application to
take their accumulated leave however due to Organizational demands for the presence of
the Officer to remain in Parliament this leave application is denied. It becomes the obligation
of duty of care for the employee to compensate the Officer based on the mentioned
grounds.

C) Managing sick leaves:

Current monitoring methods of sick leave will need to be improved, it is suggested that NPSI
have an agreement with one particular doctor who will be in charge of approving all sick
leaves for NPSI staff. All sick leave approval forms are to be left with the approved medical
practitioner to avoid staff having have to go to Parliament to collect the form from the
registry when they are already sick. Sick person is required to report to their immediate
supervisor and there must be a discussion between the Human Resources Manager and the
Doctor to establish the required medical condition for each type of sickness. Additionally, all
monthly sick leave reports are to be sent to the Ministry of Public service to the Permanent
Secretary as required by the General Orders. It must be noted that if an officer is not at work
for less than two working days, this should not be considered as a sick leave.

D) Compassionate leave /Annual Leave and Family Leave

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The compassionate leave days for NPSI staff is subtracted from the total annual leave days
and is also found to be applicable to the Spouse of the Public Officer. Where the GO has
stated clearly that under “Family Leave” the passage for the spouse of the public officer will
be paid for, if the parent of the spouse passes away. However, no payment will be made
towards the passage of the Public Officer. For the mentioned leave, dangerous illness is not
defined and could be defined instead as medical sickness. Therefore, there must be some
sort of proof provided to Management, be it a death certificate, or a medical sickness
certificate. In the circumstance that the relative passes away in the village, it was agreed that
the local nurse or the church leader should be requested to provide such confirmation. If no
such documentations are provided then the Officer will be considered as absent from work.
Documentations of Legal spouse, marriage certificates and names of children with birth
certificates, adoption orders must be collected by the Human Resources department to
ensure that the right person is entitled benefit from the family leave.
In regards to defacto relationships, the law does not give recognition to such relationships;
however it is enough to prove that a couple went through customary recognized formalities
to prove that a customary marriage took place. Documentations that should be provided by
individual staff to prove existence of such relationships should
A) signed confidentiality oath and provided with a
B) Supporting document for customary proof from the community leader.

E) Maternity Leave :
It was also clarified by the drafter of the Human Resources Policy that from the General
Orders, a woman that has just given birth will be given a less onerous job to ensure that she
has free time for breastfeeding purposes. It is deemed a criminal offense for an employee to
allow a new mother to return to employment less than six weeks after giving birth to a child.
Miscarriage is considered as part of sick leave entitlements only. Additionally, a new staff
who applies for maternity leave must be confirmed as part of the Public service
establishment within the first six months of employment, upon the circumstance that the
expecting mother applies for leave within the first six months of employment and has not
been confirmed as part of NPSI establishment, then the expectant mother will only be
eligible for only unpaid leave. .
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F) Special Leave :
It was explained that this type of leave relates to sports only and that authority is delegated
to the Clerk to grant the leave for the Officer to be out of the country for special events.

2) Flexible Working Arrangements:

The concept of Flexible working agreement between staff and management in the Legislative
Council was created to ensure that there was a balance for the interest of employees and that of
1
the Parliaments. benefits of adopting such a system of managing staff includes the institution
ability to cut its cost spent on recruitments as the problem of retention of skilled and employed
staff reduced, a reduction is the absenteeism rate, individual employees were also given
opportunities to combine employment and career interest with additional activities .It also
contributed to stress reduction among employees.
The following flexible working arrangements are in place in NSW Parliament:
A) Part time work
B) Job sharing
C) Part time leave without pay
D) Career Breaks
E) Working from Home

The types of Flexible working hours discussed extensively between the presiding officers as the
most possible to be adopted into NPSI include, Permanent part time, Time in lieu and work from
home ( open to middle and senior staff only). However, with the adoption of the flexible working
arrangements there must be a stronger staff monitoring system in place to ensure that leave is
managed properly.

3) Flexi Hours
The concept of Flexi hours is based on trust between the Manager and the employee, the employee is
expected to provide a clear and truthful record of the total working hours within the week, the
employee is expected to be working in the office within the standard core time from 10am-4am
provided arrangements are made to ensure that another Officer will be available to carry out the
required job functions if the need arises. An employee may also bank the hours worked within the day
to take off from work sometime in the future, banking of hours per day however must not exceed 7
hours, with the earliest start time from 7am and the latest at 7pm, hours worked later than 7pm will be

1
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considered as overtime work, meaning the employee must have the permission of the managing
supervisor to work late. Flexi hour’s policy also stresses the importance for an employee to take at
least 30 minutes and a maximum of an hour lunch break within a period of 5 hours between the 12pm-
2.30pm.

Time in lieu
This enables staff to have extra leave time upon leave hours being accumulated, similar to that of
Flex time.

Recruitment
Options
A) Internships
An agreement is negotiated with the regional Universities to have students attach with NPSI for a
certain period as part of their University program. Not only will this internship program benefit NPSI
but also the University student in terms of gaining a reference from the Clerk of National Parliament
as a starting point in their career after graduating from their respective universities.

B) Organizational Image
An additional option in attracting a pool of highly professional candidates would be to ensure that
NPSI establishes a reputation as one of the most highly esteemed employment Institutions in
Solomon Islands. It is important that the Corporate image of NPSI as a career option for outstanding
young Solomon Islanders is made more apparent to the general public, especially within the senior
secondary levels and graduating regional Universities students. A highly ethical work delivery
standard in the institution should be common public knowledge; a suggested method towards
achieving this includes more awareness programs on Parliamentary staff, Job descriptions and the
institution itself.

C) Interview and Selection of most appropriate candidate

The meeting with the Clerks Assistants Les Gonye and Ronda Miller provided additional assistance on
the area of recruitments and selection processes, a template letter explaining to a interviewed
candidate the reasons he was not suitable for the job was briefly analyzed

D) General /Sessional employees.

Hansard staffs are considered as Sessional employees as they have extra hours in which they are
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required to be in the office during Parliament sitting days. A potential area that NPSI can venture
into.

Staff Induction Packages

The two officers were taken through the current staff induction package for NSW Parliament
Legislative Assembly. Contents of the induction package included the following
A) List of Information the employee should obtain or read
B) Accessing Parliaments intranet
C) Organizational Chart
D) Main functions of the Legislative Council Staff
E) Main functions of Joint service departments
F) Published information on the LC
G) Published information’s on the Parliament
H) Location of Senior staff
I) Location of LC staff in Parliament house.
J) Occupational Health and Safety
K) Emergency Procedures (NPSI do not have an emergency procedure in place)
L) First Aid Facilities ( There is currently no first aid facilities in place for NPSI)
M) Conditions of Employment
N) Employee benefits and general facilities
O) General Information
P) Key contact numbers.

There was however insufficient time to listen to the IPod induction system currently in place. It was
advised that the IPod Induction package involved the group creating the script for the recording first
before the recordings were done. There are shorter packages for Ministerial Staff, visitors and New
Staff. The IPod that is used does not have any other functions besides the customized induction
recordings, which ensured that the public will not be interested in leaving Parliament with the IPod.
Other documents received that can contribute towards the induction package included the brochure
on Employee Assistance Program, Grievance policy, the Harassment free workplace policy and the
Parliaments policy on bullying.

Professional Staff Development Programs

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NPSI employees should be equipped with their individual professional development programs by the
end of 2011 for the year 2012. The Legislative Assembly for NSW Parliament is on the verge of
creating the professional development plans for all its employees. Organizational changes for the
department is a contributing factor to the need for all employees to have the same set of skills and
knowledge due to the staff rotational based system that is currently in place . The department of the
legislative Council has a Training and Career development policy in which all its trainings are carried
out in line with.

Methods of creating such plans should include a staff survey and individual staff consultation with
their immediate supervisor to identify areas in need of professional development and the career
desires of the employee.
To ensure the success of Professional development plans, there must be strong support and
commitment from the Management Group towards the development of their staff, career aspirations
and role changes. The drafter of the Human Resources policy has been advised to include the policy
on professional development as part of the HR Policy. Further to this, all professional training
programs completed by individual staff must be followed up with an evaluation of the training.

Human Resources Information database Management systems:

No appropriate systems were identified however it was suggested to use a data management system
that is currently used by the Ministry of Public service which is the Orion system. The current
database system that is used by NSW Parliament is SAP, which integrates financial information with
that of Human Resources to ensure efficient processing in employee payrolls. SAP is customized for
lager organizations then that of NPSI and is therefore not an appropriate database system to adopt.
NPSI accounts section currently used MYOB for its asset management however there is no Human
Resources Information database component to MYOB so the HR Department cannot adopt this
management system; there is an urgent need to identify a database system that will integrate both
Human Resources and the Financial Management together.

Industrial Relations

The NSW Industrial Relations Act 1996 provides for the Industrial Relations Commission to give effect
to specific Government policies, with the Industrial Relations amendment ( Public Sector conditions of
employment) Bill it has been observed that NSW Public service employees are very well protected by
their Government, with fair wages as a priority for public servants. 2.5 % increase is proposed in the
amendment bill for every year of employment of public service employees. The strong protection the
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Government provides for its Public Service workers could be one of the contributing factors in staff
satisfaction, ensuring a more productive workforce, unlike that of Solomon Islands Public Service
where SI Public servants are hardly protected or cared for by the Government of the day, this is
apparent in the Public Service wages. Protection for employees however is pushed by the workers
Union, the drafter of the Human Resources Policy will provide also an up to date policy on Industrial
Relations practices for National Parliament in his first draft.

Delivering Training on the new Human Resources policy and procedures to all staff

It has been agreed that the legal drafter will present the policy to the Executive and Management
Group; he will provide answers to any questions that may arise. Amendments will then be carried out
on the Policy before it is submitted to the Speaker of the SI National Parliament Office. Once the
Speaker is satisfied with the document, it will be submitted to the house committee to endorse.

Upon the completion of the above steps, the Human Resources and Strategy support Manager will
provide a full training with the help of her support officer on the new policy to all Parliamentary
Officers.

PROCEDURES AND PREPARATIONS FOR

SITTINGS:
Meetings between the Deputy Clerk and the Director of
the Table Office, Susan Want and Janelle Moore for
Procedures Question and Answers preparations sessions 5.8
occurred on the second week of the attachment. Both 5.2
officers were also provided with a brief opportunity to
observe Parliament sitting in the Legislative Assembly 4
and Legislative Council within the same week, followed
by a meeting with Elaine Schofielf ( Director of the Table
and Chamber services) to discuss sittings and relevant
papers) 1.6

The following observations were made on the second 2011E 2012E 2013E 2014E
week of the attachment :
RETAIL DINING
A) Preparations for Sittings CULTURE UNDEVELOPED
B) Observe Sittings in the Legislative Council and
the Legislative Assembly
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C) Legislative Councils Procedure Meeting ( brief on

the day’s activities)

A) Preparations for Sitting Week

Contrary to NPSI multi-tasking staff, the NSW Parliament staff are single-tasked oriented and comparatively are well
resourced in terms of IT programs such as intranet.

One notable difference between the twinned parliaments is that NSW Parliament is calendared and NPSI is not. NSW
Parliament staff benefit more in terms of procedural skills enhancement because of the systematic and frequency of
sittings. The staff of NPSI on the other hand sparingly use these tools so there is inconsistency some years twice in a year.

B) Observe Sittings in the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly

The two officers were given an opportunity to observe the Questions and Answers sessions in the legislative Council and
the Legislative Assembly, it was noted that the Members are far more active than those in NPSI and that accountabilities
expected of Ministers included that of their responsibilities over concerns affecting individual citizens.

C) Legislative Council Procedures Meeting briefing on day’s activities

The practice in the Legislative Council on a sitting day where the Deputy Clerk reads the Presidents program for final
editing in the presence of the Clerk and Senior Officials is deemed an excellent approach of a team work trying to
minimize (any) errors. Similar meetings does occur in NPSI as well, not every day but definitely on days important
businesses are anticipated. The Clerk convenes this briefing to inform senior staff about any anticipated business that may
require the Secretariat staff involvement, otherwise, the Speakers program is put up on the shared drive for staff viewing.
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Conclusion
The attachment with NSW Parliament have proven to have been very
valuable to both Officers, the new Strategy for Solomon Islands
National Parliament was deemed a huge challenge for the Officers, its
implementation processs and monitoring systems that were to be put in
place were still a muddy concept before the attachment. The meetings
with the Deputy Clerks, Clerk Assistants and other Managers within the
Parliamentary services department have enlightened both officers on
the necessary steps to be taken in order to adopt the best practices
from NSW Parliament that is most convenient for SI Parliament.

The Twinning Program with NSW Parliament have given the two
Officers a rare opportunity to experience firsthand the daily
expectations in managing a Parliament that is larger and more
organized and well resourced than that of SI Parliament. This
experience has broadened the knowledge and skills of both Officers in
Corporate, Strategy and Human Resources Management.

The Challenge for both Officers will be in implementing the systems and procedures observed and recommended from this
report. An exciting future lies ahead for Solomon Islands Parliament as it evolves and strives towards becoming a fully
mature autonomous Parliament.
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Recommendations

A) An up to date Organizational chart is created for NPSI.

B) A five years Organizational chart Structure is created for Solomon Islands National Parliament.
C) There should be a 2-3 years Business Plan or Corporate Plan for each Strategic objective in the 2012-2016
Parliament Strategy plan.
D) That Caution is taken in transferring the post of the Constitutional Legal Specialist into the Public service
establishment, this post must be held independent from the Ministry of Public Service in order that the Clerk to
National Parliament can be provided with impartial advise.
E) Creation of proper Guideline and Responsibility document for the informal in-house committee, the
Management Group and the Executive Group.
F) The authority of the Executive Group and Management Group is not formally recognized by the Ministry of
Public Service, these groups may have some form of Power upon Parliament gains Autonomy, Management is
recommended to find what options are available to take for the time being.
G) A standard Reporting template is created for the Management Group to report to the Executive Group.
H) A standard Minutes template is used for all In-house Committee meetings , EG Meetings and Management
Group meetings.
I) A Bi-annual Reporting System on the Progress of Parliament and its strategy Implementation status is created
twice a year from 2012 onwards.
J) That the Strategy Support group works against a detailed time line and this is created in 2011 in preparation for
implementation in 2012.

Managing of Members Entitlements

1) That a stronger system is put in place for the management of accountability of Members and their entitlements.
2) Risk Management steps are taken to avoid potential mismanagement of Members entitlements.

Parliamentary Services

1) Budget proposals for the upcoming year is prepared for submissions in June –July period in the previous year
2) That the Orion Information Management System is explored to determine its suitability to be adopted by
Parliament in order to integrate financial management aspects and Human Resources together.
3) It is not recommended that the Police Special Constables are used as Security Guards at NPSI, however if the
Executive group decides that the best decision is to outsource then it is recommended that a trusted
Professional Security Guard Company such as the Fijian House is used.
4) Parliamentary Housekeepers are to be further trained to prepare for the task of looking after the New Members
Office Complex.
5) A Policy on procurement and protection of Art and Antiques owned by NPSI is created.
6) That the IT Officers for NPSI take up the recommended steps contained in this document to prepare for the
installation of an intranet system for NPSI.

Human Resources and Industrial Relations

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A) The Human Resources policy to contain all the best practices discussed with the drafter during the attachment
and also discussed briefly in this report.
B) That the Procedures office is set up as soon as possible as recommended in David’s 2010 secondment report.
C) Executive Group to consider creating an informal in house committee to handle staff grievance and disciplinary
matters.
D) That the proposed flexible working arrangements discussed in this report are included in the Human Resources
Policy.
E) That the possibility of having internship with regional Universities is explored.
F) That the organizational Image is lifted through increased advertisement and Public Awareness on the
expectations and high Organizational performance Standards that exist within Parliament.
G) The concept of Sessional workers is explored for the Hansard Department for NPSI.
H) That a proper induction package using NSW Parliaments template is used as a guideline.
I) That all NPSI staff will have a Professional Development plan by 2012, which will be followed up with
evaluations after each training sessions are carried out.
J) An Industrial Relations Policy is created as part of the Human Resources Policy.
K) That the drafter of the Human Resources Policy will assist in the delivery of the Policy to the Executive Group
and Management group in September.

Procedures/ Table Office

1.That NPSI matures the idea to establish its Procedures Office by providing an office space using existing staff to
continue with procedural work already began. This action will support a second submission NPSI will submit to the
Ministry of Public Service in 2011 to not only create a Procedural Department in the NPSI’s Establishment in 2012 but
positions as well.

2. That there is continuity (by NPSI) on procedural work already started in 2010 by staff from the NSW Legislative
Council.

3. Prior to setting up a procedures office proper, the Clerk’s office was solely responsible for drafting and producing
chamber papers and providing procedural advices. With the strong intention to set up a procedures office proper, there
is need for better understanding on the relationship and the roles each will play between the office of the Clerk, Deputy
Clerk and the Procedure Office.

4. Continuous training for NPSI staff on procedures and the consistency across House papers such as the Business, Q&A,
Loqs and Annotated Standing Orders.

5. The Chamber File Arrangements was of particular interest. The folders were clearly set out according to the days’
business and were clearly labeled ready for use in any sudden circumstances that may arise out of the proceedings. 6.
Follow up visit by NSW officers to review work progressed and to also assist with Chamber files arrangements will be
useful